Starting off with Millicom, the group reported revenue growth of 23.7% bringing the total to $1,347 million for the period. Operating revenue also went up 71.7% year-on-year to $212 million while net profit totalled $643 million, amounting to $6.41 per share.
Part of this success with driven by Millicom's full acquisition of its joint venture businesses in Guatemala (Tigo Guatemala) for $2.2 billion in November 2021. According to the figures, this deal added $220 million in revenue to Millicom's reported numbers and $670 million to its net profit, excluding which would have resulted in a net loss of $27 million, an improvement compared to a net loss of $56 million in Q4 2020.
Broken into business segments, the group's service revenue was up 5.7% year-on-year, resulting in an increase of 6.7% for the full year. Consumer mobile service revenue increased by 4.2%, B2B grew 3.3% and operating cash flow totalled $1.45 billion for 2021.
"In 2021, we accelerated our investments to meet the heightened demand for connectivity we see in our markets. The immediate impact of this investment is impressive: robust customer growth, including record 1.1 million post-paid mobile and 415,000 cable subscriber net additions, all reflecting the quality of our networks and the strength of our brand. As a result, our service revenue and EBITDA grew 6.7%, our fastest organic growth rate in years, " explained Mauricio Ramos, chief executive officer at Millicom.
"We continued to invest to support the growth of our cable business, which now represents 40% of our Latam service revenue and grew 9.3% in 2021, and we also deployed capital to gain scale in the Colombian mobile market, leading to a significant acceleration in customer and revenue growth during the second half of the year and positioning us for continued rapid growth and improved profitability in that market in 2022. Finally, we acquired the remaining 45% equity interest in our Guatemala operations in a highly accretive transaction."
Over at Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company PJSC (du), the company reported revenue growth of 5.4% for 2021, totalling AED 11.7 billion ($3.1 billion), and an increase of 1.9% in growth in full-year EBITDA to AED 4.6 billion ($1.2 billion) and an annual net profit of AED 1.1 billion ($299 million).
As for business segments, mobile service revenues reached AED 1,390 million ($378 thousand), up 5.6%. Fixed service revenues registered growth of 10.7% to reach AED 2,844 million ($774 thousand) and lastly Other revenues grew 15.5% year-over-year to AED 3,537 million ($962 thousand).
For the quarter, revenues grew by 12% year-over-year to AED 3,070 million ($835 thousand), mobile services for the full-year topped AED 5,301 million ($1.4 million), fixed services for the quarter reached AED 763 million ($207 million) up 18.3% year-over-year, and other revenues amounted to AED 917 million ($249 million) up 17.7%.
Operational highlights for the year include increasing its mobile customer base grew by 8.9% year-over-year, totalling 7.3 million subscribers on record net-additions in Q4 of 2021. While grew its fixed customer base by a staggering 66% year-over-year with a total of 390,000 subscribers in net-additions for the period.
"During the year, we continued our ambitious investment program to accelerate the transformation and deployment of our infrastructure into a next-generation network for the benefit of our customers," said Malek Sultan Al Malek, chairman of du.
"We also fine-tuned our operational model and governance to evolve with our market, our industry and our customers’ needs. In 2021, we generated a Net Profit of AED 1.1 billion and an operating free cash flow of nearly AED 2 billion."
"I am pleased to announce that, on the basis of our financial results, the Board is recommending a dividend, for the year 2021, of 21 fils per share, out of which 10 fils per share were already paid in August 2021 as an interim dividend. This corresponds to a distribution of 96% of net profit after appropriation for statutory reserves.”
"I am proud that we delivered growth in service revenues. Fixed service revenue trends from the consumer and enterprise segments remain buoyant. I am especially pleased to report that mobile service revenues returned to growth in Q4 following 12 consecutive quarters of decline. This vindicates our strategic roadmap and we have no plans to slow down," added Fahad Al Hassawi, CEO of du.
During the year, du invested a total of AED 2.6 billion ($707 million).
